Gifted Hands Nursery & Pre-school

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Overall, children are happy, safe and well cared for. However, the quality of education is variable.

Teaching is inconsistent as not all staff understand how to plan and implement the curriculum effectively. Nonetheless, children have a positive attitude to learning and willingly take part in daily routines and activities. Children are eager to see their friends when they arrive, and they settle quickly.

Parents comment on the 'friendly' staff and appreciate the daily communication shared about their children. They report their children's social skills are developing well.Staff interact with children in a kind and gentle ...way.

Children behave well and have good relationships with staff and each other. Staff support and guide children to resolve minor issues and implement individualised behaviour support where needed. Children care about their friends.

For example, they clap and compliment their friend's achievements. All children have an assigned key person. However, this system is not yet fully effective.

This is partly due to recent changes in staffing. Children's emotional needs are nurtured and they are settled and content. Children are seen to smile and laugh often.

However, some key persons do not understand their children's learning needs well enough to effectively plan for these.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

The manager is passionate and has a clear and ambitious vision to provide good quality inclusive education for all. She assesses staff skills and knowledge through observations and regular supervisions.

She welcomes other professionals, such as local authority advisors, to recommend improvements in practice. However, this is not well established enough to ensure that all staff have the skills and knowledge they need to support children to build on what they know and can do.The curriculum is not consistently understood and implemented by all staff.

For example, children's independence is not always fully maximised or supported. Sometimes, children's independent play is interrupted and directed by staff. This curbs their creativity and problem-solving skills.

The quality of interactions between children and staff is variable. Children engage well with the variety of activities on offer. Most staff model language, use repetition and introduce new vocabulary to support children's language development.

However, on occasion, questions are asked in quick succession and younger children do not have the time they need to respond. At lunchtime in the toddler room, most staff are completing other tasks away from the children. This means children wait while they sit at the table for long periods with no meaningful interaction.

Babies feel safe and secure. They happily practise their walking skills, holding onto the furniture. They concentrate with wonder when they hold up shiny bricks to watch the reflection on the wall.

Their home routines are followed, and their physical needs are well understood. They are taken for a nap when tired and held securely when they are fed their bottle.Children are offered a healthy, nutritious menu and have direct access to water.

They learn good hygiene habits. For example, before meals, they wash their hands and put the paper towels in the bin.Children enjoy physical play.

They take part in action songs, using their whole bodies. They move freely around the playrooms and outdoors, developing coordination. Children use chalks in the garden to make marks to help develop their physical skills and represent their own ideas and thoughts.

They manipulate and shape play dough, strengthening their fingers and hands.Systems to identify and support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are effective. The knowledgeable special educational needs coordinator knows the children well and has targeted plans in place that identify their individual needs.

This supports all children to access all on offer.Babies enjoy the opportunity to engage in messy play to promote their small- and large-muscle skills. They have fun exploring the cornflour as it drips between their fingers.

They push wheeled toys, making patterns in the cornflour, and pat it making a splash.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Regular child protection training is completed by staff to keep their knowledge up to date.

Staff know the procedures to follow if they have concerns about a child. They understand what to do if they have concerns about the conduct of another member of staff. The manager follows careful procedures when recruiting new staff, to check that they are suitable to work with children.

Children learn about their own safety when they practise the fire drill. The setting is safe and secure.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen the key-person system to ensure that all parents are aware of their child's key person and that staff consistently have good knowledge about their key children look more closely at the systems in place for monitoring staff teaching and practice, to raise this to a consistently good level nimprove staff knowledge of how to implement the curriculum to ensure that older children's independence is maximised, and younger children's language development is effectively supported review the organisation of the lunchtime routine in the toddler room to ensure that children are consistently involved in meaningful activities and experiences that support their continued learning.